Traces was commissioned by the Borealis Ensemble and written in 1994-1995 with financial support from NOMUS, the Nordic Music Committee.

The title indicates how the music develops in the course of the work. The basic compositional technique used here is a favourite of mine. Accents within one (fast) pattern of notes will form a new (slower) pattern, and within this new pattern new accents will eventually form yet another new pattern, and so forth.

In etching, a pattern is transferred from a plate to a paper. Imagine, however, that the ensuing print could then be used as the plate for yet another print, and so on. Traces is made up of such interlocking series of 'prints', and while each single section has its own individual expression, several different sections and/or expressions may well turn out to originate from one and the same preceding section, and one section may well bear the imprint of several 'plates'. Traces of traces of traces...